Masahiro Tanaka stopped Oakland’s winning streak at five and notched his ninth win of the season as the Yankees prevailed 2-1 over the Athletics this afternoon.

Tanaka wasn’t at his most efficient — he needed 104 pitches over six innings — but he held Oakland to one earned run and lowered his league-leading ERA to 2.02. In all he gave up five hits, struck out four and walked one. After a John Jaso first inning homer, Tanaka retired 10 straight batters. Also of note: Alfonso Soriano broke an 0-for-16 slump with an RBI single in the second.

The Yankees’ homestand finishes up at 2-6. But at least they get on an airplane happy.

My friend an ERA just barely over 2 and a WHIP under 1.00 is indeed fantastic. Add to that Tanaka pitches in a very hitter friendly park and with an infield behind him that shall we say is not the best and you have one of the very best starters in the Major Leagues at this point. And I’d bet there are 29 other teams that would love to have him on their roster.

But you are right about one thing “Man the dumb ppl they let in here to speak”. You are apparently speaking from experience. Have a good day.

The once mighty Yankees are now one game above .500. A loss would have dropped them below .500 Given their injuries and depleted lineup, they are doing surprisingly well. Girardi is managing this team quite well considering the circumstances.

No, actually, you can’t. No outside force allowed the A’s to come back and win the first two games. As an A’s fan it would’ve been nice to see balls called balls when they were threatening to tie the game in those last two innings. If the roles were reversed, you’d be bitching up a storm.

And the K zone was far more friendly for Yankees pitchers today. Go look at the strike zone plots and see for yourself. Nine strikes called on pitches outside the zone for NYY pitchers (three for Robertson alone) and one ball called in the zone. Four strikes outside the zone for OAK pitchers and three balls in the zone. But I guess this is a stroke the Yankees post and comments section, so go ahead and leave reality out of it.

[citation needed] fka COPO - Jun 5, 2014 at 7:17 PM

Go look at the strike zone plots and see for yourself.

There are two Yankee pitches that fall outside the “generally called” strike zone per studies by Mike Fast:

no. not the same K zone. its a function of the batters. Since Tanaka is right handed, the A’s staked the lineup with lefties. Hallion had an even worse zone for lefties that the normal terrible stike zone for lefties.

Pomeranz is left handed, so the yankees had more righties in the line up, he did not have the chance to use the lefty extra 3 inches.

Hallion was terrible. It had an effect on the game. If the outcome would have been different is not a healthy question to ask. its aunt/balls question that was referenced above. But the fact that Hallion was terrible, and because of the structure of MLB lineups it benefited the Yankees today is unquestionable.

Tanaka won both games on this mess of a homestand. He is the only reason the Yankees aren’t in last. Could be a tough choice for John Farrell for who will start in Minnesota next month between him, Felix, Buehrle, Gray, etc.

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, we heard many glorious things about the future. For the most part, it’s been a huge let down. As I move through middle age, I’ve grown to accept the fact that I will never have a flying car or travel in time. That vacation condo on Mars? I’m not holding my breath.

But I need human cloning, and I need it right now. Because if the Yankees can’t find a way to have at least three Masahiro Tanaka’s in their rotation and at least one or two more in the bullpen, they’re screwed.